JUST CALL ME MS. GOODWRENCH: OR, WEIRDLY I REALIZE LONG AFTER I STOP TYPING THAT THE FOLLOWING HAS THE RUNNING THEME OF TECHNOLOGY

I have only a tenuous understanding of the meaning of the techno-speak in this manifesto (although I know someone who will), but I perked up at the mention of Stockhausen, and the sound file at the bottom of the Frontier page (requires RealAudio) made my teeth hurt, but in a good way. I remember seeing Frontier at Lounge Ax (somehow, whenever I mention Lounge Ax I feel like such a poser; like I'm bringing it up merely to be more indie-than-thou, which is not my intent), and while the rest of the crowd did not seem to be into it at all I remember my enjoyment of the show. It's not just a guy hunched over a laptop, they had wind machines and colored lights and I had consumed just enough dollar beer to enjoy the hallucinatory sounds and spectacle.

You should read this 100% true story about cool number stuff. I have synchronized it to my handheld to read later. Everybody say: ooooooh. (While we're at it, everybody say: HIPPOPOTAMUS!) (Another side note [oh Mimi who are you kidding this whole goshdarned web page is a side note]: I synchronized it with Pendragon. I'm digging it much more than AvantGo. Check it out.)

An article about NPR, that I think about every time I hear the HORRIBLE AFFRONT TO MY EARS that is the Marketplace theme music. I have always hated their intro (and usually try to dive for the radio's off button if the program airs while I'm cooking dinner, the kitchen being the only place I listen to the radio ever), but I thought I hated it on a purely musical level. Now I have another reason to hate it: the GE music motif. (I liked this little NPR screed. NPR is our only decent non-online news alternative, but of course it is not the complete entire answer to the dismal state of newsmedia. I know entirely too many people whose self-definition of "liberal" seems to rest solely on the fact that they listen to All Things Considered. Try again, bucko.)

Is the antonym for shovelware teaspoonware? And would it mean storing a tiny bit of data, like one .wav file, on a huge medium, such as a zip disk? New jargon first, actual use for the new jargon second, that's my motto. Such is the power of the word.

Without warning, my TiVo has stopped playing well with others, specifically the cable box. This is annoying. It's especially annoying because I can't fathom when or how it will get fixed, given the extremely utilitarian attitude both LT and I have toward television, and our mutual hatred of being on hold and dealing with service robots. I'm not even clear on what the problem is, exactly, but suspect it's something to do with the cable box not understanding that TiVo wants it to change channels. The bottom line of this whining is that the precariously stacked components of audiovisual entertainment in the living room are now precariously unstacked, and have been thus for a week now, and I keep forgetting about this until I decide I'd like to be televisually entertained, and walk into the living room to discover the heap of equipment. Minor household annoyances like this are a major reason why I'd like to have a butler. Or a footman. Or a lady-in-waiting who was really good with coaxial cable. Any applicants?

I certainly hope so. They've got a great little gadget there and I want one too. (Why am I suddenly such a Gadget Whore? That camera purchase must have triggered something in me.)